Cisco Policy Server comes with a set of utilities to actively monitor and trace policy execution. These utilities interact with the core policy server and the mongo database to trigger and store traces for specific conditions.

CPS supports a new network cutter utility, which keeps monitoring Policy Server (QNS) VMs failures. When any of the Policy Server VMs are down, utility cuts those unnecessary connections to avoid sending traffic to Policy Server VMs that are down, and this also results in avoiding timeouts.

This utility is started by monit on Policy Director (lb) VMs and keeps monitoring policy server VMs failures.

Utility stores log on /var/log/broadhop/network-cutter.log file.

You can verify the status of network cutter utility on lb01/02 VMs using monit summary and network-cutter status command:

monit summary | grep cutter
Process 'cutter' Running

service network-cutter status
network-cutter (pid 3735) is running

You can verify if network cutter utility has been started using ps -ef | grep cutter command:

ps -ef | grep cutter
root 6496 1 0 Feb18 ? 00:16:22 /usr/java/default/bin/java -jar
/var/broadhop/images/network-cutter.jar

Note	In CPS, CPU% consumption is high for the Policy Director (lb) that has lbvip configured than the Policy Director (lb) where lbvip is not present. This is due to netstat commands running for the network-cutter feature.

The Configuration-Reporter utility processes CPS Policy Builder configuration and report any missing cross-reference files and stale files. An option has also been provided to remove the stale files and missing cross-references in the XMI files from the configuration data in the utility.

Important

This utility can be used before or after installation to check if customers have all the configuration files needed.

This reporting utility address the following concerns:

• Reports if there are any missing PB configuration files (.xmi files) and a summary of what those files are.

• Reports if there are any stale files and a summary of the same.

  Stale files are Service Option files whose corresponding Use Case Template files are missing.

• It also shows the missing configuration files on a per-file basis, showing the files that are referencing the missing files.

• Additionally, the customer can see all the different configuration objects and their quantity to see the variety of configurations they are using.

• Using -r option, utility creates a new archive file with cleaned XMI files (removes the stale files and missing cross-references from XMI files from the original configuration data).

To run the utility, perform the following steps:

1. Mount ISO on Cluster Manager if you unmounted the ISO after completing the CPS installation or upgrade.

2. Extract the release train into the temp directory:

   cd /tmp

   tar -zxvf /mnt/iso/app/install/release-train-xxx.tar.gz

   where, release-train-xxx.tar.gz is the release train version.

3. Go into Configuration-Reporter directory which is present inside utility directory of extracted utility.

   cd release-train-xxx/Utility/Configuration-Reporter

4. Execute jar using the following command:

   java -jar configuration-reporter.jar <pb-configuration-xmi-files-in-archive-form> [-r]

   where,

   • <pb-configuration-xmi-files-in-archive-form> is the name of the configuration file.

   • [-r] is an optional parameter and if specified will remove all the references of missing files from XMI files and stale files in the archive file and outputs the corrected archive as filename_cleaned.zip|cps (output file will have same extension as input file) on the same path where command runs.

CPS provides a CRD conversion tool which converts existing Balance and Quota templates PB configuration data to CRD Data. You can provide XMI files to the tool in the following ways:

• Use Import/Export tool to export CPS configuration as an archive file (.cps extension archive) and provide the same to the tool.

• Archive set of XMI files to .zip extension archive file.

• Provide directory path where XMI files are present as an input to the tool.

Important

The conversion tool is used to convert all Balance and Quota template configuration data to CRD data. This helps to reduce the number of XMI files in the system and improves the performance.

Prerequisites:

The feature com.broadhop.balance.crdbalance.feature must be enabled so that CRD tables for Balance and Quota Template details are displayed in Policy Builder (as readonly) and Control Center. These CRD tables need to be present for importing the Balance and Quota CRD data which will be converted using the tool and Balance and Quota Templates XMIs present in Policy Builder.

To enable com.broadhop.balance.crdbalance.feature, add the feature in /var/qps/current_config/etc/broadhop/pb/features and /var/qps/current_config/etc/broadhop/pcrf/features files. For more information, refer to Customize Features in the Deployment section in CPS Installation Guide for VMware.

To run the utility, perform the following steps:

1. Mount ISO on Cluster Manager.

2. Extract release train into temp directory:

   tar -zxvf /mnt/iso/app/install/xxx.tar.gz /tmp/

3. Go to CRD_generator_Utility directory which is inside the utility directory of the extracted release train:

   cd /tmp/release-train-xxx/Utility/CRD_generator_Utility

4. Execute jar using the following command:

   java –jar com.broadhop.customreferencedata.generator-<svn-revision-number>-full.jar [–a <archive-file> | -d <directory>]

   The following table describes the various command line options:

   Command Line Options	Description
   -a	Option for passing zip archive file which contains XMI files.
   -d	Option for passing directory path where XMI files are present.
   -e	Generates .exportCrdInfo file with specified exportCRDversion. Valid Values 1 and 2 are described as follows: 1 : Data-type validations will happen only during import of generated archive into CPS. 2 : All validations will happen during import of generated archive into CPS and is the default value.
   -h	Prints help.
   -o	Object type for which CRD conversion needs to be performed. Default value is AccountBalanceTemplate.
   -r	Removes duplicate CRD data. Valid Values 0 and 1 are described as follows: 0 : De-duplication is disabled by default which means duplicate data will be part of generated CRD data files. 1 : Keeps the first record is retained and skips the rest. De-duplication is enabled which means duplicate data will be not be part of generated CRD data.
   -v	Validates CRD data against the schema (required field constraint validation). Default value is true which means validation of schema is enabled and CRD data record with missing required field value will not be part of generated CRD data files.
   -xls	Generates XLS format files for CRD data. Default option is CSV format CRD data files.

   The tool generates a “.crd” extension archive file containing ".exportCrdInfo" file and CRD tables data in CSV/XLS format which can be used by Import/Import All CRD functionality in CPS to import the CRD data into the system.

5. To view or edit the csv files, perform the following optional steps:

   1. View-only using Excel : In Excel, you can only view the csv files present in generated “.crd” archive where non-ASCII characters are present in it. In order to view non-ASCII characters which might be present in CRD Data, perform the following steps:

      1. Open a blank Excel file.

      2. Go to Menu option Data > From Text File and import the CRD table CSV file in which non-ASCII is present.

      3. A “Text Import Wizard” is displayed. Perform the following steps:

         1. Select Unicode (UTF-8) in File origin drop-down.

         2. Check Comma as delimiters.

         3. Do not perform any changes and click Finish.

         4. Click Ok.

      4. All non-ASCII characters are displayed correctly.

         Note	It is not recommended to edit generated CRD Table csv files containing non-ASCII characters in excel view.

   2. View and edit using other editors (vi editor): You can view and edit csv files present in “.crd” archive file using editors such as vi editor even if the CRD data contains non-ASCII characters.

6. The generated “.crd” extension archive file needs to be imported as CRD Data into CPS which can be performed using the following options:

   • Use "_import" CRD API to import CRD data in CSV format.

   • Use "Import All" option in Control Center to import CRD data in CSV format.

   • Use "Import” option in Control Center to import CRD data in XLS format. This option enables you to import single XLS CRD data at a time.

   Note	If you try to import multiple CRD tables during traffic it may have call flow impact. It is recommended to import multiple CRD tables during Maintenance Window (MW).

CPS provides a conversion tool to convert the balance references in the existing service configuration to CRD data string value to adopt the CRD table driven configuration solution. The tool can perform the following:

Important

This conversion tool is used to convert balance references in existing configuration data and clean Balance and Quota templates as part of result archive file. This helps in reducing the number of XMI files in configuration data.

The tool generates an archive file named as “<input-file-name>_updated.<input-file-extension>” if it is an archive file input or "<input-directory-name>_updated.zip" if it is a directory file input.. It contains all the XMI files in the input file along with updated Service Option XMI files with a new field “dynamicRefDataKey” if there are references to Account Balance template object type.

Note	The output archive file might not contain “.exportInfo” and “.exportRepositoryInfo” files as the tool only works on conversion of Service configuration balance reference data present in user input and copies all other input files in the output archive.

CPS supports an auto healing and auto correction in case of endpoint heart beat failures between the LB and QNS VMs.

To support the auto correction of the qns process, two python scripts is utilized which runs through monit to monitor failure counters continuously. Depending on the heal option available, you need to enable or disable it to take necessary actions.

For example, if the script detects that one of the QNS processes has an issue with the ZMQ IPC endpoint connection based on the failure counters.

If the script is running with auto heal enabled, then the script sends an alarm and recovers the system by restarting the qns process. Before restarting the process, the script ensures that there is no other issues (like a network connectivity or manual stop of qns process) on the VM. If present then the script skips the recover process for that qns process.

If the script is running with auto heal disabled, then it skips to recover the qns process but it sends an alarm.

The following section describes two scripts:

usage: auto_heal_server.py [-h] [--maxRestartCount MAXRESTARTCOUNT]
                           [--restartPeriod RESTARTPERIOD]
                           [--enableMode ENABLEMODE]
                           [--maxLogfileSize MAXLOGFILESIZE]
                           [--maxLogfilesCount MAXLOGFILESCOUNT]
                           [--waittime WAITTIME]
CPS Auto Healing
optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
required named arguments:
  --maxRestartCount MAXRESTARTCOUNT, -m MAXRESTARTCOUNT
                        Maximum number of allowed restarts of QNS process
                        within a period
  --restartPeriod RESTARTPERIOD, -p RESTARTPERIOD
                        Period in seconds in which script allowed to be wait
                        next restart of qns process in case process not came
                        up.
  --enableMode ENABLEMODE, -e ENABLEMODE
                        Enabling the auto healing function, when flag true it
                        will restart QNS process
  --maxLogfileSize MAXLOGFILESIZE, -ls MAXLOGFILESIZE
                        Maximum size of the log file in bytes
  --maxLogfilesCount MAXLOGFILESCOUNT, -lc MAXLOGFILESCOUNT
                        Maximum number of logs to be keep in the log path
  --waittime WAITTIME, -w WAITTIME
                        Wait time in sec to get the process status from QNS
                        and LB VMs from client, if client still running.

usage: auto_heal_client.py [-h] [--intervalSleep INTERVALSLEEP]
                           [--maxLogfileSize MAXLOGFILESIZE]
                           [--maxLogfilesCount MAXLOGFILESCOUNT]
                           [--waittime WAITTIME]

CPS Auto Healing

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit

required named arguments:
  --intervalSleep INTERVALSLEEP, -i INTERVALSLEEP
                        Failure counter fetch interval sleep time in sec
  --maxLogfileSize MAXLOGFILESIZE, -ls MAXLOGFILESIZE
                        Maximum size of the log file in bytes
  --maxLogfilesCount MAXLOGFILESCOUNT, -lc MAXLOGFILESCOUNT
                        Maximum number of logs to be keep in the log path
  --waittime WAITTIME, -w WAITTIME
                        Wait time in sec to get the process status from QNS
                        and LB VMs from client, if client still running.